I am already touring next season's collections. I am making my way from press event to press event, being talked through the extensive fabulosity of the pieces each brand/shop/online e-tail sensation will be flogging in three and a bit months' time, given a macaroon, a lookbook and an embarrassment of gifts as a thank you for getting off my arse and gracing whoever with my not-especially fragrant presence. It's nice – looking at clothes is always nice, and so are macaroons. It's all shaping up well, too. Spring's going to be pretty. I have personal highlights. Leopard print continues to evolve. Tailored shorts in leather and suede have firmly established themselves as central facets of the modern wardrobe. Wedges will get even more extraordinary. Hoorah for all that.

Which is why it's also frustrating. I am not going to be able to buy any of these clothes until February 2011 at the earliest, and I won't be able to wear them until it gets warm again. Assuming it ever does. Delayed gratification – not really my bag. Of course, if I were a proper fashion professional (NB I frown upon the use of the term "fashionista". It's twee, and also meaningless. Desist), I wouldn't be thinking in these self-serving and defeatist terms. I'd instead be thinking: brilliant! I will be able to build all manner of beautiful pages around these clothes, and inspire and inform my readers when the time is right! But I only ever really think in terms of what I want to own and wear, and so this process of previewing merely serves to fill me with covetous urges I can't possibly satisfy. I am a twisted ball of longing. Worse, I already know how my current wardrobe is flawed. I know the precise ways in which it will date. I am bored by styles, colourways and concepts that officially have months of coolness left in them.

How to proceed? I should probably tell you to focus on acquiring a wardrobe filled with timeless pieces and ignore the furious whimsy of fashion's dark impulses, but that's just not really my way. Instead, I instruct you to go slightly left of trend. Embrace the curious style anomalies that have tickled your fancy while seeming to have nothing much to do with anything catwalky.

POLLY'S STYLE CLINIC

How can I avoid hat hair? Is there a hat anywhere that won't completely destroy my do? Or must I live with crazy hair, or a very cold head, for the rest of the winter? JOANNE, WOKING

Weirdly, Joanne, I find hats send my hair one of two ways: spiralling out of control, or looking much, much better than under normal circs. I believe it's a question of static. Having studied the phenomenon for a winter or two, I've concluded that hair which is, say, 85% dry following a shower and brisk once-over with a hair dryer responds well to a faux-fur trapper hat which I got in Topshop. Will it work for you? No idea, but it's worth a go.